Tasty Tuesday--Cupcakes

We followed a super easy recipe for the cupcakes we made for this cooking class. 

11 tbl. unsalted butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar
1 14 c. self-rising flour
3 eggs, whisked
1/2 tsp. vanilla

The kids and I are big fans of cream cheese frosting, so we made that instead of the icing suggested in the recipe book.  So much better!  The kids colored the frosting and decorated their cupcakes. 

Tasty Tuesday--Berry Trifle

The next recipe the kids picked was Quick, Heavenly Berry Trifle.  Basically an angel food cake with berries and whipped cream.  Instead of getting a store bought cake or making one from a mix I decided to make one from scratch, that way they could learn how to separate eggs and beat them to form peaks.  It was a good activity and it tasted yummy.

Angel Food Cake

1 1/4 c. cake flour
1 3/4 c. white sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. egg whites
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond

1. Beat egg whites until they from stiff peaks, and then add cream of tartar, vanilla and almond. 

2. Sift together flour, sugar and salt.  Repeat 5 times.  (CRAZY!  but we did it that many times.)

3. Gently combine the egg whites with the dry ingredients and the pour into an ungreased 10 inch tube pan. 

4. Place cake pan in a cold oven.  Turn the oven to 325 degrees.  Cook for about 1 hour or until cake is golden brown. 
5. Invert cake, allow it to cool in the pan.  When thoroughly cooled, remove from the pan. 

Then we followed the other recipe for the rest of the treat. 

Berry Mixtrue
1 1/2 Tbl. fresh lime juice
1 c. blackberries
1 c. blueberries
(We used blueberries and strawberries.)

1. Place lime juice, 1 cup blackberries, and 1 cup blueberries in 8 inch square glass pan.
2. Mash berry mixture using the back of a spoon.

We didn't make it look like a pretty trifle, we just put a slice of cake in a bowl and topped it with berries and whipped cream.  Tasty!

Tasty Tuesday--Fruits & Veggies

We read All About Fruits and All About Vegetables today then made some yummy fruit and vegetable dips. 

Yummm-kin Pumpkin Dip
3/4 c. cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. canned pumpkin (we used the pumpkin from our garden)
1 Tbl. maple syrup
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1. Combine cream cheeses, brown sugar, and pumpkin in a medium bowl.  Beat with a mixer at medium speed until well combined.
2. Add syrup and cinnamon and beat until smooth.
3. Cover and chill 30 minutes before serving.
4. Enjoy this dip with peeled apple slices or cinnamon pita chips.

Note: We tried this dip with all the fruits, but only liked it with apples and pita chips.  We thought it would be good with pears, too.  It was OK with bananas, but not good with raspberries, peaches, strawberries or grapes.

Creamy Ranch Dip
1/2 c. cream cheese, softened
3 Tbl. buttermilk
2 Tbl. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tsp. chopped fresh dill (we used dried and forgot to change the amount--good thing we like dill)
1/2 tsp. minced fresh garlic
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

1. Combine cream cheese and buttermilk in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk until blended.
2. Stir in parsley, dill, garlic, onion powder, salt, and pepper.
3. Serve this dip with baby carrots, broccoli florets or other fresh veggies (we also had peppers, celery and cucumbers).

Note: This dip was extra runny, but it is probably because we used frozen and thawed cream cheese.  We added it to some homemade ranch dressing and that thickened it. 

Fruit Dip
1 8 oz. package of cream cheese
1 7 oz. jar of marshmallow cream

1. Blend until smooth.

Note: This dip is a favorite and goes well with all the fruits.  I mixed it with the pumpkin dip and enjoyed that flavor with the pita chips. 

Tasty Tuesday and Wow Wednesday

Last week I mentioned that we read the "All About Meat and Fish" book and were going to make tuna melts but discovered that we didn't have any tuna fish.  Well, I bought some and that is what we made. . .or at least some of us followed the recipe. 

Tuna Sweet Corn Melt
2 oz sweet corn
1 Tbl mayonnaise
1 small can of tune in water, drained
.5 oz grated cheddar cheese
wholegrain bread roll
salt and pepper

1. Mix the sweet corn, mayonnaise, and tuna in a bowl with salt and pepper.
2. Spread the mixture on the roll.  (We used English muffins)
3.  Sprinkle the cheese over the tuna and grill until cheese is melted.  (We used the broiler, but a toaster oven would work as well).

The kids didn't like the idea of having corn in it.  I followed the recipe and made one for Jonathan and I.  Braedi and Corbin made sandwiches and Dyllan, Ephram and Faythe just at the tuna mixture plain or with crackers.  I don't think I'll ever use this recipe again.  I have others that I like better.

For Wow Wednesday we attended a Red, White & Blue Celebration that a friend invited us to.  There were crafts and speakers.  The kids enjoyed the crafts, but the speakers were a little long-winded for such a young crowd.  I enjoyed what they had to say, though.  I love learning about the founding fathers and the principles that our country was founded on.  Too bad I forgot my camera again. 

Summer Fun

I was a little overzealous when I planned summer fun activities for everyday.  There is no way that we are going to be able to do them all.  We have been able to do all of our Tasty Tuesdays so far, but haven't made anything on Monday and only did one Thoughtful Thursday and one Friend Friday. 

Tasty Tuesday last week was All About Dairy.  We learned about different animals we get milk and cheese from and were surprised at some of the weird ones (buffalo).  We attempted to make butter and yogurt cheese, but must have given up too quickly.  We tried two different ways to make butter--with beaters and shaking cream in a jar.  Neither worked well.  The yogurt cheese just tasted like yogurt.  We would love to find someone who makes cheese and learn how to do it.

Tasty Tuesday this week was supposed to be All About Meat, but I was out of tuna fish for the meal so we learned how to make pudding from scratch.  The taste was good, but we didn't cook it long enough to get it thick.  The kids had to drink it.  I forgot to get pictures, though. 

We missed our WOW Wednesday last week, but yesterday my sister set up a field trip to an ice cream store.  The kids helped make cookies & cream ice cream, stood in the freezer and ate an ice cream cone.  It's always fun to see what happens behind the scene.  Too bad I forgot my camera!

Tasty Tuesday--Grains

Summer is here and our school schedule changes a little to accommodate the season.  As often as possible we will do school, but we will also add fun activities.  Each day of the week has a fun activity scheduled under theme: Make-it Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Wow Wednesday, Thoughtful Thursday, and Friend Friday.  Tasty Tuesday will include our annual cooking class activities. 

I found a set of books at the library called "All About _____".  There are 5 books for each of the major food groups.  I thought I could implement a little academic learning into our cooking class.  Today we learned about grains and each kid made their own loaf of bread following a recipe in the book.  We are also going to plant some wheat grass and go to Sprouts to check out some other grains (we were only familiar with wheat, rice, corn, barley, and oats). 

We grind grains and make bread often in our house using a mixer, so kneading by had was a new experience.  The recipe was in ounces, so we learned how to use a scale to measure.  The kids loved the idea of having their own loaf all to themselves. 

World Geography--India

We went to India next.  We started (as always) by learning some basic facts, listening to some words in Hindu and reading some books about children in India.

 Location: Asia
Capital: New Delhi
Population: 1,189,172,906
Main Language: Hindi, English, and Urdu
Main Religion: Hinduism and Islam
Currency: Rupee
Government: Federal Republic

We began the unit by making (more like attempting to make) an Indian bread called Chapattis.  It didn't turn out too well because Braedi read the recipe wrong and added 1 T of salt instead of 1 tsp of salt. 

Chapattis
4 cups whole meal flour
2 T vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
1 cup water

In a large bowl mix the flour, oil and salt.  Gradually add the water to make a thick dough.  Knead the dough and divide into 12 equal balls.  Flatten each with a rolling pin and roll into a 5" circle.  Fry on low heat, turning several times to avoid burning.  As the chapattis cooks, it will puff.  Serve warm and dip in butter, curries, or sauces. 

India is home to the smaller-ear elephant.  Sometimes the elephants are used as work animals.  During the Elephant Festival the elephants are decorated and marched in a parade.  We made an elephant craft.

We learned about symmetry by making an Indian welcome message.  Mothers and daughters begin their day by cleaning the front porch of their home with water.  After it dries they draw a symmetrical design called rangoli with white powder.  First they make dots, then connect the dots with lines.  On special occasions the inside spaces are filled with colors. 

We also learned a little about the Taj Mahal.  Then we learned how to play a game called Kaooa or Vultures and Crows.  Here are the instructions:

Materials
--Homemade pentagram game board
--1 counter to represent the vulture
7 counters to represent the crows

Playing the Game
Player  1 places one crow on any point.  Player 2 places the vulture on an empty point. 
Player 1 places the second crow on any empty point.  Player 2 moves the vulture 1 space along a line to an empty point. 
They continue taking turns until all seven crows are on the board. 
Then the players take turns moving one counter at a time to an adjacent empty point.   Player 1 moves the crows and Player 2 moves the vulture.  The vulture may capture a crow by jumping over it along a line to an empty pint.  The vulture may make a series of captures on a single move. 
The game ends when the vulture is trapped and can't move or when the vulture has capture at least four crows. 

The kids enjoyed playing it and tried to teach their dad how to play. 

World Geography---Japan

Japan was the next country in Asia that we visited.  Again, we started by learning the basics, learning some words in Japanese and reading some books about children in Japan.

 Location: Asia
Capital: Tokyo
Population: 126,475,664
Main Language: Japanese
Main Religion: Buddhism and Shintoism
Currency: Yen
Government: Constitutional Monarchy with a Parliamentary Government

You can't go to Japan without learning about origami--the art of folding paper.  The kids chose from 4 simple designs: fox, crane, cup and pig.  Paper folding is hard!

 

We learned about the Itsukushima Torii Shrine and made one out of play-doh. 

 

Many Japanese girls collect dolls and display them at the Doll Festival.  Braedi made a cute doll out of a water bottle and construction paper. 

Japanese boys are honored during the Boys' Festival.  They hang carp windsocks from poles.  Corbin made a carp kite.

 

We also made Mon-kiri cutouts.  Instead of making something from folded paper, we made something by cutting paper.  We folded coffee filters, drew designs (kind of like snowflakes) and cut, then glued the circles onto black squares.  We made a little math lesson out of it.  We wondered how many designs we would get if we folded the circle 2 times or 4 times or 6 times.  Pretty designs, but no pictures.

 

Our homeschool group happened to be hosting the annual geography fair at this time, so we decided to present Japan.  The kids each picked something to talk about and display.  Even though it was a super windy day and our display board got knocked down, the kids did a fantastic job. 

 



World Geography--South Korea

The next stop on our trip was South Korea.  We started by learning the basics and had fun listening to google translate say some words in Korean.
Location: Asia
Capital: Seoul
Population: 48,607,000
Main Language: Korean
Main Religion: no affiliation, Christian, and Buddhist
Currency: Won
Government:  Republic

After reading some books and stories about South Korea we did our first activity.  Have you heard the story about the peasant who went to the king and tricked him into giving him 1 grain of rice the first day and doubling the amount every day for 1 month?  I'm not sure if the story came for Korea or if it's just that rice is a staple there, but we tried the activity.  We took our ages and tried to figure out how many grains of rice that would be, but after 6 days I was done counting!  There has got to be a formula for that problem. 

We played a game (or attempted to play--the words got confusing) called "kawi, bawi, bo" (rock, paper, scissors).  Next we played a Korean drum.  The idea was to make a drum with an old round cardboard carton.  I only had one, so we just played the "drum" using different items.  A Korean drum lies on its side so the drummer can hit both ends.  Dyllan used her hands, Ephram used plastic spoons, Faythe used hard plastic straws, Braedi used wooden spoons and Corbin used markers.  They all made interesting and unique sounds. 

 

We also happened to be learning about Korea during one of our history lessons during our co-op.  We learned about the flag in South Korea (a yin-yang) and made a fan with a similar to that. 

 

Lastly we made a paper lantern.  In Korea, the people honor Buddha's birthday with paper lanterns.  They decorate the temples with the lanterns and have a parade with real lanterns in the evening. 

 

World Geography--China

China was the first country we visited on our trip around the world.  We began by learning the basics:
Location: Asia
Capital: Beijing
Population: 1,336,718,015
Main Language: Mandarin
Main Religion: Atheism
Currency: Yuan
Government:  Communist State

Then we leaned some fun facts.  Riding bikes is popular in China.  The yak and giant panda are found in China.  A child is 1 year old on the day it is born and 2 a year later.  Red is a lucky color.  Next we went to Google Translate and learned how to say a few words in Mandarin.  We also attempted to write some Chinese characters.  We read about what it is like to be a kid in China today. 

Our first project was to make the Great Wall.  We used rice crispy treats cut into bricks.  Some walls were greater than others. 

Paper was invented in China in 105 AD, so we decided to make our own paper.  It was strictly for decoration--it is too tick and soft for everyday use. 
1.  Tear scrap paper into small pieces and put them into a blender so it is half full.
2.  Fill the blender with water to make it 3/4 full.  Turn blender on medium until the paper is blended into a pulp. 
3.  Add pine needles, leaves and other small materials to pulp.  Blend for 1-2 seconds more.
4.  Place a screen over a pan.  Pour the water pulp over the screen, spreading the pulp out in a square shape.  Let the water drain off into the pan for 30 minutes.  (We didn't have screen, so we used an old potato sack). 
5.  To drain water from the pulp further, put an old towel on top of a stack of newspapers.  Carefully lift the pulp covered screen and put it on the towel.  Put another pieces of screen on top of the pulp and roll the water out with the can--like a rolling pin.
6.  Lift the screen, then flip it over onto the pressing cloth.  Peel the screen off the set paper carefully.
7.  Fold the pressing cloth over the wet paper and press until almost dry.  (We used a bar towel).
8.  Put a heavy book on it overnight to flatten.  Iron if desired.  (We skipped this step). 

Before paper was invented, the Chines people wrote on strips of bamboo.  They also wrote from top to bottom, right to right.  We made our own bamboo books using popsicle sticks.  It was hard to write that way.  I forgot to take pictures of this project. 

Next we made fans.  We drew 2 pictures on the same piece of paper--1 upside down from the other--then folded the paper accordion style. 

As part of the Spring Festival that falls at the beginning of Chinese New Year, people celebrate with fireworks and parades.  Dragons are everywhere.  For our final activity we made dragons.  The kids decorated dragon heads, made accordion bodies and added streamers. 

The kids are also making a suitcase to keep their crafts and activities in. 

 

Animals

We did a short, simple unit on animals recently.  We just spent one day on each of the different types of animals.  We read a book, talked about the characteristics of that group and made a craft. 

Mammals--Faythe made a bear and the others made bat hats.

Amphibians--They all made frogs of different sorts.

 Birds--Braedi and Corbin made origami birds while Dyllan and Faythe made robins. 

Fish--We all worked together to make a fish mobile.

Reptiles--Dyllan and Faythe made alligators, Ephram made a snake, Braedi drew a chameleon and Corbin made his own version of a frilled lizard.

Insects--Corbin colored in his insect coloring book, I made a beetle, Dyllan, Ephram and Faythe made butterflies and Braedi made dragonflies.

 

Then each of the kids picked an animal that they wanted to learn more about.  We got some books at the library and did some research on-line.  The four older kids picked out 3-5 interesting facts then wrote a simple report.  I read Faythe a book about her chosen animal and she told me her facts and helped write her report.  Then they all presented.  Actually all of them except Corbin.  At the last minute he couldn't find his report.  Hopefully he'll find it in the next day or two and I'll add him.  I hope you can hear them--I don't have a video camera, just the video function on my digital. 


"Alligators are Dangerous.  The older they get the longer they are.  The biggest found was 19 feet long.  They usually get to be 10 fee long.  They live in swamps and lakes near the Gulf of Mexico.  Alligators have webbed feet like a duck.  They have a strong tail to help them swim.  Alligators are cool."

"King Cobras are my favorite animal.  They are the longest venomous sane growing to 18 feet.  They lay 20 to 50 eggs.  King Cobras attack when they are surprised.  They eat other snakes, eggs, small mammals and lizards.  I like King Cobras." 

Parrots are fun birds.  They sleep with their wing over their head.  They have 4 toes, 2 in the back and 2 in the front.  Their toes made them good climbers.  parrots like to eat carrots and broccoli and seeds.  They use their sharp beak to eat.  I  like parrots. 

Chameleons are interesting looking animals.  Their feet look very cool--V-shaped so they can grab onto the tree branches and they have 3 toes on one side of their food and 2 toes on the other side.  A Chameleon's tongue is 2 times the length of their body.  Without their tongue they would die of starvation because they are really slow.  Chameleons need warmth to move.  The side of them that is facing the sun is black, but the other side is it's normal color.  Chameleons have rally bad smelling and almost no hearing, but their eyesight makes up for that.  Their eyes can look in 2 separate directions at 1 time.  Because of their bad hearing chameleons us their colors to speak.  I think chameleons are really cool looking reptiles.  (I can't get Braedi's video to upload.)

 



Biz Day

Our homeschool group had it's annual Free Enterprise Day.  The name was different this year, but it was still the same idea--make and sell and buy.  I debated for a long time if I wanted to participate this year and as a result we got started a little late.  The kids found some ideas on pinterest using supplies that we had at home, so there was no outside cost.  They didn't have time to earn money so I searched every possible spot and found $1 in change for each of them.  They paid me back half the amount at the end of the day.  The kids love this activity and I love that this year they didn't most of it on their own, and they each had their own item to sell.

Braedi made bookmarks.  This was actually her own idea, not one she found on-line.  She designed, colored and cut 15 bookmarks and sold all but 2. 

Corbin originally wanted to make snow globes, but the day before the event he still hadn't finished one, so he decided to make candy cane cookies.  He sold all of them.

 Dyllan found a recipe for edible finger paint.  She made lots of different colors and sold out.

Ephram made these cute clothespin airplanes.  He sold all but 1.

Faythe and I didn't make anything, but we bought some things.  We both bought a cloth ring and some food. 

United States--Wisconsin and Wyoming

The last of the 50 states!  My goals at the beginning of this unit were to follow Braedi's desire, to build familiarity with each state and learn something interesting, to learn the states and their capitals and location on the map, and to have fun.  I think we accomplished all of them.  It's been a fun year and the kids and I are excited to move on to world geography next. 

Wisconsin was home to many pioneers so we made a log cabin.  The logs were made from rolled up newspaper and the frame was a shoe box that I cut to size. 

And because Wisconsin is the known for it's dairy cows, we also made a yummy malted milk shake.

I lived in Wyoming for about 5 years of my childhood and that made the kids a little more excited about this state.  I was able to share some random things I remembered--like the "Rawlins wind Monster", living in the sames city as the state penitentiary, and raising tadpoles.  We learned a little bit about Yellowstone National Park and Old Faithful and made our own geyser using Diet Coke and Mentos. 

Fun Time!

United States--Texas and Utah

"Don't mess with Texas!" and "Remember the Alamo" are favorite sayings about this state.  Texas is a big state with all kinds of different climates, but the thing I think of when I think of Texas is cowboys.  I took this idea and we made mini-cowboys. 

The kids felt like they knew about Utah already because it is a place we've visited so many times.  Over the summer we visited the Great Salt Lake and just got our feet wet, but we didn't get to float in it.  We attempted to make a Mini Salt Lake and see what we could get to float in our salt water.  Nothing un-normal floated because the kids wouldn't let me put more salt in--they didn't want me to waste it.